Green krausen in primary (algae?)

[cooper58d2002]

I brewed my first wheat beer about a week ago using wyeast Belgian Ardennes with a yeast starter and my own recipe. I kept the primary in a temperature controlled at 70+- 1* F. The gravity was 1.061 and it fermented heavily for the first 3 days or so. Everything was fine until I checked on the bubbler today and it had some green algae looking crude in the airlock. I've never seen this color before and was wondering if anyone else has had this issue before, I used sanitizer in the airlock. Any thoughts?

 

[EmeraldTab]

was the airlock thoroughly cleaned before using? did some hops make it over into the ferm?

 

[cooper58d2002]

was the airlock thoroughly cleaned before using? did some hops make it over into the ferm?

I cleaned with PBW and then sanitizer mixed in with he water. I used hop pellets in bags as well as a stainless steel screen tube on the bottom of my boiler. I chill using a counter flow that I run boiled water through for around 10 minutes before I brew to kill any left over bacteria. I've seen white, tanish and off color krausen before in my airlock but never green. I'm going to transfer to the secondary tomorrow hopefully I don't see anything crazy when I pop the top.

 

[CrystalShip]

No thoughts...but I would change that sucker out for a clean one asap dude

 

[wiscodrinker]

How did this turn out for you? I had a similar thing just happen. The yeast went crazy right away so I installed a blow off tube. When transferring to the secondary I noticed the algae in the water bottle with the end of the tube in it. No weird smells and I tasted the gravity reading tester. As far as I can tell it tasted like it should.

 

[imafreaking]

Did my first brew three weeks ago and krausen was green as well. I just assumed it was from the hops. Couldn't rdwhhb since all the brew is still bottle fermenting for carbonation, but tallgrass brewery has been keeping me occupied while I wait to see the results in March.


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[prohl84]

Change the airlock out and throw a blanket over your bucket or ferment somewhere dark- avoid sunlight and you won't have photosynthetic organisms growing in your airlock.

EDIT: the picture you posted is not of the krausen itself just an algae film in your airlock. Good chance your krausen is NOT in fact green. That would be really bad. The chunky foam looking stuff is the krausen.

 

[Rambunctious]

Fill your airlock with cheap vodka and nothing lives there period.


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[Nuggethead]

fermenting a Wheat at 70f +, you probably had a very active fermentation that brought some hop material to the krausen surface. I doubt very much that you have algae growing. The minimum temp for that yeast is 65f, and the lower the fermentation temp, the fewer off flavors will develop and blow-off would be less aggressive. A fully boiled wort with sanitizer in the bubbler should never grow anything in just 1 week.